Enix

Enix Corporation (株式会社エニックス [Kabushiki-gaisha Enikkusu]) was a Japanese video game and manga publisher.

The company was founded on 1975-09-22, under the name Eidansha Boshu Service Center and published real-estate tabloids. The company tried expanding into real estate trading and brokerage in 1980, with a subsidiary company called Eidansha Systems, but it failed to become popular. In 1982, the company was renamed Enix (a portmanteau of ENIAC and phoenix) and changed to video game publishing. Their initial model was quite clever, they would hold contests for amateur programmers and, which ever game designer won the contest would get their game published, and a chance to work for the company. This not only allowed them to acquire a game library, but got them in touch with programmers and designers.

Enix hit it big with the publication of Chunsoft's Dragon Quest which became the company's most popular franchise. By 1989, Enix had become so popular, Eidansha Boshu Service merged Enix into itself, and took on the name Enix Corporation. In 1991, the company began publishing manga through Gangan Comics.

Due to increasing costs of game development, Enix and Square merged in 2003 to form Square Enix.

In the 8-bit days of game playing, I rarely paid any attention to who made the games I played. It wasn't really until the 16-bit era that I recognized Enix as a company, and, even then, they weren't high on my radar, probably owing to the fact that most of their games never left Japan. Looking back, I'm impressed with how the company drummed up new business by holding competitions, but they were ultimately a publisher, not a content creator.